Method for determining the global position

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method of increasing the accuracy of the global position of a user receiver determined by means of a navigation system, wherein a mobile reference receiver is used. The invention further relates to a corresponding apparatus.

The present invention relates to a method for increasing the accuracy of the global position of a user receiver determined by means of a navigation system, in particular a satellite assisted navigation system. The invention further relates to a corresponding apparatus.

A determination of the global position of a mobile user receiver, for example of a vehicle, equipped with a GPS (global positioning system) receiver, based on a navigation system which is in particular satellite assisted is as a rule subject to accuracy errors which are in particular caused by atmospheric effects which result as the consequence of varying propagation speeds of the signals transmitted by the navigation system. A global position determined solely by means of a navigation system is as a rule consequently subject to error.

To reduce accuracy errors in the determining of position in such a system, stationary reference receivers are used which are also called base stations and whose global positions are known. A position error of the global position determined by means of the navigation system can be calculated in the form of correction data from the known global position of a reference receiver and the global position of the reference receiver determined by means of the navigation system. The position error calculated by a stationary reference receiver can then be transmitted to mobile user receivers to be used there for the correction of the global positions of the mobile user receivers determined by means of the navigation system. In the known satellite assisted navigation system GPS, this process is called DGPS (differential GPS).

Stationary reference receivers of this type are, however, not available with blanket coverage so that a correction of a global position of a user receiver determined by means of the navigation system is not possible everywhere. Furthermore, the achievable accuracy is dependent on the distance of the mobile user receiver from a stationary reference receiver and thus on the density of reference receivers, i.e. the number of reference receivers per unit of area.

It is therefore the underlying object of the present invention to provide a method of the initially named kind which eliminates the aforesaid disadvantages and to provide an apparatus by means of which the method can be carried out.

The object is satisfied by a method having the features of claim 1 and in particular in that the global position of a mobile receiver is determined by means of the navigation system, at least one stationary landmark is detected by means of the mobile reference receiver provided with at least one environment sensor, the global position of said landmark being known in at least one spatial direction, in particular entered in a digital map, a position error of the global position of the reference receiver determined by means of the navigation system for at least one spatial direction is calculated from the known global position of the detected stationary landmark, from its relative position of said landmark and the position error of the global position of with respect to the mobile reference receiver and from the global position of the mobile reference receiver determined by means of the navigation system and the calculated position error is transmitted from the mobile reference receiver to the user receiver to increase the accuracy of the global position of the user receiver determined by means of the navigation system.

The invention is in particular characterized in that, instead of or in addition to stationary reference receivers, mobile references receivers are used, in particular vehicles which are equipped with a receiver for signals of a navigation system, for example a GPS receiver, and a transmitter for the transmission of a position error in the form of correction data and whose corrected global positions can be determined with reference to stationary landmarks such as posts, traffic lights, crash barriers or lane markings whose global positions are in turn in particular known from a digital map.

In contrast to stationary reference receivers, the global position of a mobile reference receiver is naturally not constant and/or is not known in advance, but must rather be determined via an environment sensor system with the aid of one or more landmarks whose global positions are known. In particular the relative position of the detected stationary landmark with respect to the mobile reference receiver can be determined by means of the environment sensor system. One or more distance sensors, radar sensors, ultrasound sensors, video sensors, infrared sensors and/or laser scanners or any desired combination of different sensor types can be used as environment sensors, for example.

In many cases, in particular with landmarks extended in one direction such as lane markings or crash barriers, the global position of the landmarks is only known and/or detectable in one spatial direction, in particular transversely to the direction of travel, so that a position error can also only be calculated for this spatial direction. The position error is in particular only calculated in these cases for at least one spatial direction, in particular transversely to the direction of movement of the mobile reference receiver.

The method in accordance with the invention in particular has the advantage that vehicles which are anyway equipped with a receiver for the evaluation of the signals of a navigation system and environment sensor systems for vehicle assistance systems such as ACC (adaptive cruise control), crash avoidance, navigation assistance and automatic emergency braking can transmit the position error otherwise only calculated for the use of their own vehicle to other vehicles—in particular to vehicles which do not have an environment sensor system. The position error can be transmitted to other vehicles via vehicle-to-vehicle communication in the radio frequency range, for example.

A reference receiver density of stationary reference receivers which may already exist can be increased using the invention or, with a sufficiently high number of mobile reference receivers having an environment sensor system and a digital map, own independent reference receiver networks can be operated.

The navigation system can in particular be a satellite-assisted navigation system, for example GPS, but generally also a terrestrially based navigation system which, for example, uses radio or TV masts as transmitter stations.

The calculation of a global position error is generally known, in particular from DGPS, so that it is not looked at in any more detail within the framework of the present invention.

Advantageous embodiments of the invention are also recited in the dependent claims, in the description and in the drawing.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, to determine the known global position of the detected stationary landmark in dependence on the global position of the mobile reference receiver in a digital map determined by means of the navigation system, a section of the environment of the global position of the mobile reference receiver is determined and data with respect to the detected stationary landmark are compared with data from the section of the digital map. The association of the detected stationary landmark with the entry in the digital map corresponding to the detected stationary landmark, and thereby the determination of the known global position of the detected stationary landmark, can hereby be accelerated. The data can in particular be data which represent the size, shape and/or reflectivity or any other characterizing property of the corresponding stationary landmark.

In accordance with a further preferred embodiment of the invention, stationary landmarks are detected, recognized and/or tracked in a plurality of sequential cycles, in particular continuously, by means of a laser scanner during the movement of the mobile reference receiver, in particular during the travel of a vehicle. A higher number of data on the environment of the mobile receiver, in particular on individual stationary landmarks, can thus be obtained so that the association of the detected stationary landmark with the entry in the digital map corresponding to the detected stationary landmark, and thereby the determination of the known global position of the detected stationary landmark can be facilitated and a high security of association ensured, in particular when a plurality of stationary landmarks are detected. Methods for the recognition and/or tracking of objects based on range images are generally known. An example for such a method is described in “Fortschritt-Berichte VDI, Reihe 12, Nr. 438, Kirchner, A., “Sensordatenverarbeitung eines Laserscanners für autonome Fahrfunktionen von Kraftfahrzeugen”, [Progress Reports VDI, Series 12, No. 438, Kirchner, A., “Sensor data processing of a laser scanner for autonomous driving functions of motor vehicles] VDI Verlag GmbH, Düsseldorf 2000, ISBN 3-18-343812-7, ISSN 0178-9449. A description of such a method can furthermore be found in the publication of Fürstenberg, K. et al.: “Pedestrian Recognition and Tracking of Vehicles using a Vehicle based Multilayer Laserscanner”, Proceedings of ITS 2003, 10^(th) World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 2003, Madrid, Spain.

Generally, the known global position of the detected stationary landmark, on the one hand, and the global position of the stationary landmark which can be determined from the global position of the mobile reference receiver determined by means of the navigation system and subject to error and from the relative position of the detected stationary landmark with respect to the mobile reference receiver, on the other hand, can be compared with one another to calculate the position error. A known global position of the stationary landmark and a determined global position of the stationary landmark subject to error are compared with one another in this process. However, the global position of the mobile reference receiver determined by means of the navigation system, on the one hand, and the corrected global position of the mobile reference receiver which can be determined from the known global position of the detected stationary landmark and its relative position with reference to the mobile reference receiver, on the other hand, are preferably compared with one another to calculate the position error. In this process a global position of the mobile reference receiver subject to error and a determined corrected global position of the mobile reference receiver are compared with one another. This has the advantage that a corrected global position of the mobile reference receiver is present which can also be used for own navigation assistance.

Generally, with a plurality of detected stationary landmarks, own corrected global positions of the mobile reference receiver can be determined and own position errors can be calculated for each of the detected stationary landmarks, with an averaged position error being able to be calculated from the plurality of calculated position errors. With a plurality of detected stationary landmarks, however, only a corrected global position of the mobile reference receiver is preferably determined, in particular to reduce the calculation time, and is compared with the global position of the mobile reference receiver determined by means of the navigation system to calculate the position error.

The object is furthermore satisfied by a method having the features of claim 6 and in particular in that at least one position error calculated for at least one spatial direction is received from at least one mobile reference receiver and a corrected global position of the user receiver for at least one spatial direction is determined with reference to the received position error.

User receivers—in particular user receivers not having an environment sensor system—can hereby obtain position errors calculated by mobile reference receivers equipped with environment sensor systems in order to be able to correct their own global position determined by means of a navigation system and subject to error. A mobile reference receiver can also be a user receiver.

A corrected global position of the user receiver can in particular be determined with reference to at least two position errors calculated in each case for at least one spatial direction and received from at least two different mobile reference receivers, with in particular the directions of movement of the mobile reference receivers and/or the spatial directions extending substantially perpendicular to one another, e.g. with a bridge crossing. It can hereby be achieved that a position error which was received from one reference receiver, which was calculated in only at least one spatial direction, and which can therefore result in a global position only corrected in at least one spatial direction, can be supplemented by a position error which was calculated and received by a further reference receiver and which was likewise only calculated in at least one further spatial direction to permit a correction of the global position of the user receiver in a plurality of spatial directions. The user receiver can also be a mobile reference receiver which can calculate a position error for at least one spatial direction by means of its environment sensor system and which can receive a position error calculated for at least one further spatial direction from at least one further mobile reference receiver.

A further subject of the invention is a computer program with programming code means to carry out the method in accordance with the invention when the program is carried out on a computer.

A computer program product is also a subject of the invention having programming code means stored on a computer legible data carrier to carry out the method in accordance with the invention when the program product is carried out on a computer.

In this connection, a computer is in particular understood as any desired data processing device with which the method can be carried out. They can in particular have digital signal processors and/or microprocessors with which the method can be carried out fully or in part.

The object is furthermore satisfied by an apparatus having the features of claim 10 or claim 11.

The invention will be described in the following by way of example with reference to the drawing. There are shown:

FIG. 1 a global position of a reference receiver determined by means of a navigation system and a corrected global position of a reference receiver as well as a known global position of a landmark; and

FIG. 2 a plan view of two mobile reference receivers whose directions of movement extend substantially perpendicular to one another.

FIG. 1 shows the global position 11″ of the focus of a vehicle 11 equipped with a GPS receiver, said global position being projected into a plane and being subject to error or not corrected and having been determined by means of the satellite assisted navigation system GPS. The position 13′ known per se of the focus of a stationary landmark, in particular of a post 13, located in the closer vehicle environment is furthermore shown.

The vehicle 11 is equipped with a laser scanner for the detection, recognition and tracking of objects, in particular of stationary landmarks, as well as with a digital map in which the known global positions of stationary landmarks have been entered.

In accordance with the invention, the laser scanner scans its range of view with a rotating pulsed laser beam and detects the post 13 in this process. It then compares data acquired by the detection with respect to the post 13 with data from entries in the digital map which correspond to stationary landmarks, with only entries being used which are located in a spatially limited section of the environment of the global position 11″ of the vehicle 11 determined by means of the navigation system. The post 13 can hereby be associated with the entry in the digital map corresponding to the post 13 and the known global position 13′ of the post 13 can thus be determined. To increase the security of association, a plurality of stationary landmarks and their mutual arrangement are preferably detected and compared with corresponding entries in the digital map which have the same arrangement.

The corrected global position 11′ of the focus of the vehicle 11 likewise shown in FIG. 1 can them be determined by means of a data processing apparatus from the known global position 13′ of the focus of the post 13 determined in this manner and from the relative position of post 13 to the vehicle 11 determined by means of the laser scanner.

A position error 15 of the global position 11″ of the focus of the vehicle 11 determined by means of the navigation system can then be calculated from the corrected global position 11′ of the focus of the vehicle 11 and from the global position 11″ of the focus of the vehicle 11 determined by means of the navigation system.

Subsequently, the determined position error can be transmitted from the vehicle 11, analogously to a stationary reference receiver, to other vehicles equipped with a GPS receiver and can be received by these so that their global positions subject to error and determined by means of GPS can be corrected correspondingly with the assistance of the transmitted position error, analogously to DGPS.

In FIG. 2, two vehicles 17 and 19 are shown which each correspond to the vehicle 11 of FIG. 1 and move substantially perpendicular to one another at least at a specific point in time or over a specific time duration. Instead of the post 13 of FIG. 1, continuous lane marks 21 and 23 are detected in FIG. 2.

As should be illustrated by error bars 25 and 27 shown in the direction of travel and transversely to the direction of travel for the accuracy of the determination of the global position, the position error can only be calculated transversely to the direction of travel with lane markings since an accurate global position is not known and/or is not detectable in the direction of travel. Consequently, the accuracy of the position determination in the direction of travel cannot be increased; however, it can be increased transversely to the direction of travel, analogously to the situation in FIG. 1.

If both the position error calculated by vehicle 17, which is only present with respect to one spatial direction and the position error calculated by vehicle 19, which is likewise only present with respect to one spatial direction which extends substantially perpendicular to the first spatial direction, are transmitted to a mere user receiver, i.e. a vehicle equipped with a GPS receiver not having its own environment sensor system, there is again a “complete” position error at the user receiver.

It is also possible for the calculated “one-dimensional” position error of the global position of the vehicle 17 to be transmitted to the vehicle 19 and/or for the calculated “one-dimensional” position error of the global position of the vehicle 19 to be transmitted to the vehicle 17 so that a complete position error is also present in vehicle 17 and/or vehicle 19.

It is thus made possible by the use of mobile reference receivers which are equipped with an environment sensor system to increase the accuracy of the global positions of user receivers determined by means of a navigation system.

Reference Numeral List

11 vehicle

11′ corrected global position

11″ global position determined by means of a navigation system

13 post

13′ known global position

15 position error

17 vehicle

19 vehicle

21 lane marking

23 lane marking

25 error bar

27 error bar 

1. A method for increasing the accuracy of the global position of a user receiver determined by means of a navigation system, wherein the global position (11″) of a mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) is determined by means of the navigation system; at least one stationary landmark (13, 21, 23) is detected by means of the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) provided with at least one environment sensor, the global position (13′) of said landmark being known in at least one spatial direction, in particular entered in a digital map; a position error (15) of the global position (11″) of the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) determined by means of the navigation system is calculated for at least one spatial direction from the known global position (13′) of the detected stationary landmark (13, 21, 23), from its relative position to the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) and from the global position (11″) of the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) determined by means of the navigation system; and the calculated position error (15) is transmitted from the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) to the user receiver to increase the accuracy of the global position of the user receiver determined by means of the navigation system.
 2. A method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that ,to determine the known global position (13′) of the detected stationary landmark (13, 21, 31) in dependence on the global position (11″) of the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) in a digital map determined by means of the navigation system, a section of the environment of the global position (11″) of the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) is determined and data with respect to the detected stationary landmark (13, 21, 23) are compared with data from the section of the digital map.
 3. A method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that stationary landmarks (13, 21, 23) are detected, recognized and/or tracked in a plurality of sequential cycles, in particular continuously, by means of a laser scanner during the movement of the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19), in particular during the travel of a vehicle.
 4. A method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the global position (11″) of the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) determined by means of the navigation system, on the one hand, and the corrected global position (11′) of the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) which can be determined from the known global position (13′) of the detected stationary landmark (13, 21, 23) and its relative position with respect to the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19), on the other hand, are compared with one another to calculate the position error (15).
 5. A method in accordance with claim 4, characterized in that, with a plurality of detected stationary landmarks (13, 21, 23), only a corrected global position (11′) of the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) is determined and is compared with the global position (11″) of the mobile reference receiver (11, 17, 19) determined by means of the navigation system to calculate the position error (15).
 6. A method of increasing the accuracy of the global position of a user receiver determined by means of a navigation system, wherein at least one position error (15) calculated for at least one spatial direction is received from at least one mobile reference receiver (11, 13, 17); and a corrected global position of the user receiver for at least one spatial direction is determined with reference to the received position error (15).
 7. A method in accordance with claim 6, characterized in that a corrected global position of the user receiver is determined with reference to at least two position errors calculated in each case for at least one spatial direction and received from at least two different mobile reference receivers (17, 19), with in particular the directions of movement of the mobile reference receivers (17, 19) and/or the spatial directions extending substantially perpendicular to one another.
 8. A computer program with program code means to carry out the method in accordance with at least one of claims 1 to 7, when the program is carried out on a computer.
 9. A computer program product with program code means which are stored on a computer legible data carrier to carry out the method in accordance with at least one of claims 1 to 17, when the computer program product is carried out on a computer.
 10. A mobile reference receiver to increase the accuracy of the global position of a user receiver determined by means of a navigating system comprising means for the carrying out of the method in accordance with at least one of claims 1 to
 5. 11. A user receiver to increase the accuracy of the global position of the user receiver determined by means of a navigation system comprising means to carry out the method in accordance with claim 6 or claim
 7. 